No, no . . . relax. It's not time to send in our taxes; it is the anniversary of income taxes in the United States. Happy Anniversary, federal income tax.
On this date in 1861, Congress passed a law to ensure the government had a reliable source of income to pay interest on war bonds. It seems income tax helped the North win the Civil War. Later, the Act of 1862 established the office of Commissioner of Internal Revenue, providing the powers of collection and prosecution still in effect today.
Also still in effect today is the relationship between taxes and war -- or at least the military. The War Resisters League has a nice pie chart showing that military spending has a big piece of the pie.
How does the government spend our money? Here's a chart showing and comparing spending for four years.
technorati tags: federalincometax, civilwarandtaxes, militaryspending, warresister, governmentspending, vickisblog
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